GERALD CHRISTOPHER TERRIFIED BEFORE HE VANISHED

GERALD CHRISTOPHER doesn't look like the kind of guy who scares easily. Standing 6’4 and at over 200lbs – he had an imposing presence. Yet, in the days before his disappearance, Christopher was seriously spooked. The Philadelphia-area personal trainer told his fiancé that they were in danger, and that they should flee the country.
His behaviour became even stranger when, at a friend’s barbeque, he was introduced to a woman who for an unknown reason caused him to freak out. After shaking her hand he ran to his car and sped away, according to his fiancé Roxy Merat. Two days later – he’d disappeared – sneaking out of his apartment leaving his keys, wallet and cell.
Radnor police said that Christopher (known to friends as ‘Chris’) does not have
any medical condition that could explain his erratic behaviour – nor was he in debt. Clients of Christopher also noticed a change in his mood. The usually outgoing, enthusiastic trainer had become more reserved, quiet. Friends have canvassed the area and pasted flyers on every available wall space.
According to Merat there have been some unconfirmed sightings of Christopher in West Chester and Wilmington, where his best friend live.
She contacted the friend who told her that: "Chris was the type of person who would do this, that he would leave and start a new identity and that he had done this in the past."
Merat, however, doesn’t buy this. Merat believes that Christopher got cold feet about their wedding; "maybe he didn't want to give me his burden and wanted to set me free," Merat said.

WEATHERMAN JOHN BOLARIS' SCAMMERS PLEAD GUILTY

TWO EASTERN European bar girls have pleaded out to slipping Philly weatherman John Bolaris a roofie and robbing him of $50,000 in South Beach. The two sultry svetlanas plied the handsome Fox 29 meteorologist with booze and also slipped him a roofie. Two days later he came to in the back of a taxi with a massive hangover, a huge loss and a huge painting of a woman's face. His lawyer said: "The fact remains. that John is one of several victims, and he feels vindicated by these pleas of guilty. It's been a long ordeal."

The embarassed broadcaster told Miami cops he met the two b-girls, Anna Kilimatova and Marina Turcina at a bar, where they approached him.  He
bought them some wine and just a few minutes later they were getting cozy by the pool bar – where Bolaris alleges the girls slipped him the roofies. The twosome are part of an elaborate network of schemers known as ‘b-girls’ – short for “Bar Girls” that lurk in South Beach nightclubs looking for wealthy male tourists, according to police. Prosecutors say that their victims get so drunk that they can barely remember what happened, and only realize they’ve been robbed days after the event. When Bolaris got his bearings back he returned to the bar to confront the girls – and to get his sunglasses back.  Things didn’t go to plan however, as he alleges the girls drugged him again.  Didn’t this guy ever see the Hangover?Two other women involved in the scam pleaded guilty to immigration fraud charges yesterday.  The two took a plea deal – ratting out the other members of the gang in return for a lesser sentence.  All together there are 17 defendants – if Kilimatova and Turcina don’t want to go away for a long time, they’d better get next in line to cut a deal.
MORE FROM PHILLY.COM

MOB CHIEF JOE LIGAMBI HIT WITH BIG INDICTMENT

THE PHILADELPHIA mob has again been thrown into turmoil with the arrest of Mafia kingpin Joseph "Uncle Joe" Ligambi, 71. More of the Angelo Bruno style than Crazy Nicky Scarfo, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Ligambi was reluctant to use violence because it interferrred with his money making schemes. The arrest Monday could signal the end of his run and further imperil the Philadelphia mob. The gentleman gangster and others were hammered with a 50-count indictment that focuses on racketeering, loan-sharking and gambling. But curiously missing is any semblance of violence, of course there are
broad hints that terrible things could happen if a wiseguy didn't play ball. Standard-fare.
The Inquirer said: In one conversation, Anthony Staino Jr., a top Ligambi lieutenant, threatened to send "two gorillas" to deal with a deadbeat gambler.
 Ligambi took over as acting boss of the organization for jailed mob chief Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino. But Ligambi was a throwback to the old days. A former bartender and suspected hit man, he is the longest serving boss since Bruno's run from 1959 to his 1980 assassination.
For years, Philadelphia gangsters were engaged in a bitter blood feud that infuriated other top mobsters. Ligambi brought quiet. One former mobster said: "All he wants is peace... and money."

WHO IS JOSEPH LIGAMBI?

PHILLY COPS BAFFLED BY BRUTAL IRIS TYSON MURDER

WHO killed Iris Tyson? That's a question cops in Philadelphia would like to answer. The pretty blonde 23-year-old was found bludgeoned to death in an overgrown lot on Sunday.
A cousin told the Philadelphia Daily News: "My cousin would never come here on her own."
Tyson vanished on Mother's Day after telling her parents she was going out to buy a card and a gift for her mom. By evening she hadn't returned and her parents filed a missing persons report and plastered the neighborhood with posters, hoping someone saw something.
But on Sunday, their hopes were crushed when a person collecting bottles discovered her body in tall weeds next to an abandoned home in South
Philadelphia. Her body was found two miles from her house. So far, cops have not revealed whether there are any suspects.

Meanwhile, her tight-knit Irish family are heartbroken at their devastating loss.
Her sister Carol Leidy said that Iris was very close to her parents and particularly her mother and that everyone looked up to her. Irish hoped to be a veterinarian.
She said: "We made a bond - that she would be the godmother to my first child someday and that I would be the godmother to her first child. Now I'll never have that."

MORE IN THE PHILLY INQUIRER

FRIENDS, FAMILY SAY GOODBYE TO SKYLAR KAUFFMAN

IT WILL be a sad day in suburban Philadelphia today as friends and family say goodbye to Skylar Kauffman. The pretty 9-year-old was raped and murdered, allegedly by a neighbor, last week after she disappeared from the parking lot where she was playing.
Her funeral will be held today in suburban Montgomery County. Last night the Grade 3 student was remembered fondly as a little girl who loved swimming and dancing and always had a big smile.
Family friend Lana Goldstein said: "She was just a happy, great, fun loving, little girl. She used to come to Lutheran Community and visit
her great-grandma, with the biggest smile and her grandma would smile and it would just lighten up the day."
Cops say Skylar was murdered in the basement of her apartment complex. They arrested James Lee Troutman, 24, a neighbor who they say battered and strangled the child after raping her. he then dumped her body in a trash bin. He faces kidnapping, rape and murder charges. And, if he's guilty could potentially face the needle. Meanwhile, Skylar's family is devastated.
Friend Jen Kilgore told ABC6: "There's nothing you can do for them, you wish there was something you could to do to make their situation better, you would do anything to bring her back, but you can't. So the best thing you can do is to come and show you care. What a sweet, cute, little girl she was, I can't imagine something so awful happening. It's bad enough to lose a child, but to lose a child that way, I couldn't imagine anything worst."
SAYING GOODBYE TO SKYLAR

TWISTED TATTOOIST WALTER MEYERLE: 200 SEX VICTIMS

TWISTED tattoist Walter Meyerle traded ink for dink with scores of underage girls. Ohhhh, that Walter. Yep. The one who was busted in March and charged with giving a girl, 14, in exchange for sex. Now, cops say it wasn't just the one incident. The suburban Philadelphia sicko has been charged with sex crimes with more than a dozen other children--some of them as young as 4. Most of the victims were children of friends and girlfriends. The errant inker now faces somewhere in the vicinity of 200 sex crime charges. Tally? Two adults and 14 kids. The assaults took place over the last 13 years and involved children ranging in age from 4 to 17-years-old, law enforcement sources said.
Public safety director Fred Harran said: "My only hope is that this guy gets
five minutes with [Navy] Seal Team Six. It doesn't get much lower than this guy. He shouldn't be breathing."
Worst? Molesting the children of a family whose house burned down and he let move in. One 5-year-old was molested a stomach-churning 50-60 times
A master manipulator, besides tattoos, he used toys and other gifts. His wife is also being investigated.
MORE ON THE TWISTED TATTOOIST

SKYLAR KAUFFMAN: TROUTMAN LOCKED HER IN HIS APT.

KILLER?

TERRIFIED and surrounded by pictures of naked women Skylar Kauffman and her friend realized her alleged murderer, James Troutman had locked them in his apartment after offering to: "show them his bird."
But three weeks to the day before her death, the nine-year-old and her pal were able to escape from his Philadelphia, PA apartment where cops later found a pool of her blood and a single shoe of hers. The girls went willingly, but when they saw the pictures, when Troutman offered to show them his "bird," and when they
realized that he had locked the apartment door behind them, they ran away and told their parents, according to court documents.
Cops said that they responded and interviewed Troutman, but they never charged the 24-year-old with any crime, although they remained tight lipped as to what was actually said.
Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman told The Philadelphia Inquirer yesterday that no crime occurred that rose to the level of filing charges and that Troutman had no criminal history that would have led police to suspect that he was capable of something more sinister.
She added: "It's one of those situations where everyone did what they were supposed to do, and, unfortunately, we couldn't prevent the death of a child."
Sadly less a month later Skylar would be dead.
In a confession Troutman reportedly said he had taken Skyler in the basement, choked her, hit her head on the floor and then "got rid of her" in the Dumpster.
He told police he had to kill her "because once I took her down the basement, I knew she could get me in trouble," according to court documents.
Astonishingly he then returned to his apartment and ate dinner with his fiance, apparently without a care in the world.   
An autopsy performed yesterday determined that Skyler had died of asphyxiation and blunt-force trauma and that she had "significant genital injuries."
He has been charged with her murder.

SKYLAR KAUFFMAN MURDER: JAMES TROUTMAN NABBED

P.M. UPDATE: POLICE in Pennsylvania have charged a 24-year-old man with first-degree murder in the sickening sex slaying of 9-year-old Skylar Kauffman. Sources say James Lee Troutman, a neighbor, confessed to the murder. The little girl went missing Monday and her body was found around midnight, wrapped in a blanket and dumped in a trash bin. She had been sexually abused and strangled. Police sources say Troutman wasn't very hard to find: he was in the vicinity and had blood on his shoes.

Police Chief James P. O'Leary said cops interviewed the man  and felt something was amiss. They questioned him again, which is when they allegedly spotted the blood.
"Each time they noticed something more and more alarming about his conduct and his response to the questions," Leary said. "… As they interviewed him, they noticed some blood on his person. And we have been able to gather some physical evidence that has linked him to the crime."
EARLIER IN CRIME SCENE USA

MURDER OF SKYLAR KAUFFMAN, 9, 'TERRIBLY VIOLENT'

A SEARCH for a 9-year-old Philadelphia-area girl has ended in heartbreak. The body of Skylar Kauffman was discovered in a  dumpster around midnight Monday after detectives followed a bloody trail. Cops have arrested a 40-year-old neighbor and expect him to be charged within hours in the "terribly violent" slaying.
Skylar had been playing outside her parents apartment in suburban Souderton Monday when she disappeared. But when the man grabbed her in the sex-fuelled attack, cops say she put up a heroic struggle that may ultimately send her killer to his death.
Police chief James P. O'Leary told Fox 29:
"Unfortunately this was a terribly violent crime, but with violent crimes comes a tremendous amount of physical evidence. There's no doubt the evidence will link the suspect, who is the perpetrator ... the perpetrator and the victim to the crime."
Witnesses last saw Skylar playing in a parking lot at about 5 p.m. local time, and that her parents called the police when she failed to return home for dinner.
O' Leary added: "There are indications that she struggled and I really, really am so saddened by her death, but I hope that in that struggle that there was an exchange of evidence so we can link him even more completely to the crime."
Sources say Skylar and the suspect were involved in an incident two weeks ago when she ran sobbing and screaming away from his apartment. Cops have confirmed but would not provide any further details.

HOW THEY FOUND SKYLAR'S KILLER